Author's Notes: Yay! Okay, I saw some stories similar to this in the Harry Potter section. I thought it would be cool for Holes. And it's one of the few Holes stories without girls or about Squid's troubled past. Some of them are well written and everything, but...it gets old. Stanley and Zero are at CGL, but they never run away. I wanted Twitch but then you can't have Zero. And God knows we can't not hyave Zero )
Title: Musical Mints
Rating: We'll go with PG; I'll bump it up if I have to.
Summary: A Camp Green Lake genius invents mints that make people sing. What songs will our favorite juvenile delinquents sing? And will they discover something about themselves-in song?
Chapter One- R E S P E C T
----
"Word is we've got new meat coming," X-Ray told D-tent. They had just gotten up and were grabbing their breakfast and shovels.
"C-Tent, right? That Marshmallow Kid got sent home, right?" Armpit asked, biting into his honey tortilla. He made a face and looked like he was going to spit it on the ground.
"Yeah. His time was up. He only stole a bag of marshmallows. You better eat that, Pit. You ain't getting any other food till lunch," X-Ray said to Armpit about his honey tortilla.
"Lunch'll be stale. Supply truck comes tomorrow," Zigzag said, staring off into space.
"Wonder what this kid did," Squid said. "Hope he's tougher than Marshmallow. Magnet, remember when you accidentally bumped him into water spigot and started crying?"
"Yeah, that was great. What a wuss. I'm surprised he even survived Camp Green Lake in the first place," Magnet said.
They had reached their holes and started digging. No one really thought about the new C-Tent kid, but Zigzag would occasionally stare at the dirt road, swearing he saw a Chevy.
When everyone was about waist depth in their holes (Zero was about shoulder depth), a school bus pulled up, bumping from the gargantuan number of potholes.
"Here he is," X-Ray said nonchalantly. He took his place at the front of the line as Mr. Pendanski pulled up with lunch.
"Hey Mom, what'd the new meat do?" Squid asked.
"Alan, I don't think you should refer to this young man as 'new meat.' He may have made some wrong choices but he is still a person like you or I. I believe you should all make an effort to be friendly with him, even if he is not in D-Tent." Mr. Pendanski explained.
"Wha-e-r," Squid replied with his mouth full of sandwich. "And it's Squid," he said after taking a big swallow.
"Alan, please don't talk with your mouth full. No one likes to see your chewed up food." said Mr. Pendanski.
"Squid," Squid, X-Ray, and Magnet said simultaneously.
"It says Alan on your birth certificate, so I will call you Alan. I've got to go give E-Tent their lunch. Enjoy digging," Mr. Pendanski said. With a quick wave, he left.
"Damn Pendanski," Squid grumbled, returning to his hole.
"Chillax, Squid," X-Ray said. "He calls us all by our stupid names. No one else does."
"We haven't gotten new meat since Cavemen. I wanna know what he did," Magnet pointed out.
"We all do, Mag. Wait till we get in the wreck room. The faster you dig, the faster you can find out what he did," X-Ray said, and no one could argue with that logic.
Zero finished first, followed by X-Ray, Squid, and ZigZag. Next came Magnet, Armpit, and finally, Stanley.
They boys walked into the wreck room. Two C-Tent boys were laughing. A short, skinny, boy with wild white-blond hair and wire-frame glasses was sitting on the beat-up couch.
"Look at him. I bet he can't even lift a shovel," a big black boy said, laughing.
"I bet he can't even see the shovel. I bet all that hair gets in the way," a blond boy commented.
"Hey, leave 'im alone," X-Ray said, sitting next to the boy. "I'm X-Ray. What's your name?" He outstretched his hand.
The boy shook it nervously. "James," he said quietly.
"Nice to meet you, James. Don't worry, not all the dudes at Camp Green Lake are like those two losers. If you ever need help, you come to me a'ight?" X said.
James nodded.
"So James. If you don't mind me asking, what did you do?" X Ray asked him, with the rest of D-Tent listening eagerly.
"I stole," James said in that barely audible voice of his. "DNA samples. From the National Scientific Research Center. They're pretty confidental, so it was a pretty big deal. My mom thought I should go to camp to make friends. I always tell her my test tubes are my best friends." He looked around the wreck room at the two boys who were teasing him. They were now playing pool and arguing over who got stripes and who got solids. "I guess Camp Green Lake isn't exactly the best place to make friends."
"Hey, not everybody is like them," X-Ray said. "I ain't. This is Armpit, Magnet, Squid, Zigzag, Caveman, and Zero. They're good kids."
"We don't know 'bout Zero, though. He only talks to the Caveman," Squid said, giving Zero a friendly punch. Zero said nothing, but gave Squid a sour look.
"Hey, he needs a nickname. Got any ideas Spud?" the blond boy asked the other boy. They had finished arguing and decided that since X-Ray had talked to James, he was okay to talk to.
"How bout Frizzle?" the big black boy, Spud, answered. "'Cuz his hair's all frizzy. And Mrs. Frizzle is that smart, science-y teacher from the Magic School Bus. And he's all smart and science-y."
"Frizzle it is. C'mon Frizzle, dinner," the blond boy said, slapping Frizzle on the shoulder. Frizzle stood up silently and walked out of the Wreck Room.
"Man, that kid is weird. He's the first smart guy I've ever seen at Camp Green Lake!" Magnet exclaimed.
"I bet he's a spy. Smart people don't get in trouble like that," Zigzag commented.
"Aw, come on Zig. You thought your meatloaf was a spy," Armpit said, and everyone laughed.
"It looked way too suspicious to be ordinary meatloaf. That meatloaf was spying on the Camp, and the campers who ate it," Zigzag said.
"Whatever," Magnet replied, getting in line for dinner.
Dinner was some normal, disgusting, canned food. Stanley noticed Frizzle wolf his food down. He wondered how a kid so skinny could eat so much.
---The Next Day---
Stanley walked out of D-Tent. He was last, of course. He was still getting used to this whole 4-AM thing. He was never a morning person. Nearly everyone had walked to their holes, except Frizzle.
"Hey, Caveman, right?" he said.
"Yeah," Stanley replied.
"Look." Stanley came over to Frizzle. He was holding several dark brown, round objects. "Candies. I used my special ingredients to formulate a special non-melting chocolate. Here, take some," Frizzle said, placing the round chocolates in Stanley's hand.
"Thanks, dude," he said walking away and not noticing the sly smile on Frizzle's face.
----
Stanley had been digging for what seemed like forever. He was sweaty, hot, and had the least dug.
"Hey Stanley. Water's here," Zero said, pouring a few drops of water on Stanley's face. He had been too pre-occupied with his hole to realize the water truck was here. Zero was closest to the truck, and stepped first in line.
"Hey, get in your place, Zero," X-Ray ordered.
"Yeah. You ain't good enough for the front," Squid laughed.
"Only people who can spell get water first," said Armpit, and the rest of D-Tent laughed. Stanley tried defending Zero, but nobody listened.
"Sorry, dude," he said.
"It's okay. It's not your fault. I wish they'd at least be nice to me. I'm not stupid. I just don't like answering their stupid questions. I wish they would treat me with respect," Zero said.
Stanley nodded. "Here, have one," he said. Frizzle gave 'em to me,"
Zero ate a chocolate. "Mmmm, this is good. Minty," he commented.
Zero went back to his hole, but the other boys didn't leave him alone.
"Hey Zero, what does W-A-T-E-R spell? You don't know! Because you're stupid!" and all the other boys laughed. Zero opened his mouth to say something back, but instead something else came out.
What you want!
Baby I got it!
What you need
You know I got it!
All I'm asking
Is for a little respect when you come home,
Yeah, baby
When you get home
Yeah!
I ain't gonna do you wrong
While you're gone
I ain't gonna do you wrong
'Cuz I don't wanna!
All I'm asking
Is for a little respect when you come home
Yeah, baby
When you get home
Yeah!
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Find out what it means to me!
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Take out TCP!
Ooooh, a little respect!
Ooooh, a little respect!
R-E-S-P-E-C-T!
Zero looked shocked at the words that had come out of his mouth.
The other boys looked shocked too. They had barely heard Zero talk, let alone sing!
"Damn!" Squid said. "He really can spell!"
----
Yay! You like? I will be writing more, don't you worry. But you have to review.
Oh yeah, now here's a disclaimer
Disclaimer: I do not own Holes, Aretha Franklin, or the song Respect, or even the marshmallow kid. Well, I own him here, but I didn't think of him. I own Frizzle though! Go Frizzle!
Oh yeah, and I didn't put all of Respect there because the rest sounds more like a girlfriend than Zero. And Zero is most certainly not a girlfriend of anyone in D-Tent.